Two more children joined the reading workshop at Friends Library today! With seven children in the cosy children’s section of Friends Library, Day Two of the reading workshop was a day of learning. We spoke about the publishing process and copyright. We designed book covers. We shared myths from around the world. And we had […]
Day One: Exploring the World of Stories
As of yesterday, I had no registrations for my reading workshop. I decided to go to Friends Library anyway. Three children came. And then one more. And one more. And one more promises to come tomorrow – all in all, it was delightful. Among other things, we played Pass the Story – a cross between Pictionary […]
Skellig
Skellig by David Almond is a human story, and like so many human stories, contains a little miracle. A scientific miracle, perhaps. Or maybe a spiritual miracle. Sometimes the two go together, along with angelic intervention, scientific study and William Blake. Skellig is not a story that wants to be believed. Yet it is not fantasy. It is not […]
Three Days to Go for my Workshop at Friends Library!
Are you ready? Have you passed the word? Will you please? Any queries? Write to me!
My Favourite Male Characters in Fiction
I wonder why most of the fictitious characters I love and admire are female! Is it because I want to identify with my characters and it is easier for me to identify with female ones? When I think about remarkable male characters, though, I don’t really run out of favourites. 1) Little Lord Fauntleroy: Just […]
My Favourite Female Characters in Fiction
A question that always bothers me when I’m writing is whether I should concentrate on plot or character. Plot has the power to transport me, make me gasp and thrill me. But characters… Ah, they’re the people who become lifelong friends. 1) Pollyanna: Too good to be loved, but how I love her! She should be a […]
Exploring the World of Stories: A Reading Workshop for Children
Summer holidays! Time for yet another reading workshop! I’m moving to another library now – Friends Library, Salunke Vihar Road Mark the dates: 19th May – 23rd May 2014 Age-group: 8-12 years Time: 10 am – 11:30 am Registration fee: Rs. 750 Join the fun! Let’s explore the world of stories!
Five Problems with Good Books
1) I forget that I’m a writer. I pick up Harry Potter determined to see how J.K. Rowling weaves the magic she weaves. I decide that I will look at her techniques, the way she gets me involved in the story and how she slides in her humour. Five chapters – that’s all it takes to get me so engrossed […]
Last Day to Vote
Somehow, seeing my book cover on Rivokids’s shortlist for the Parents Kids Choice Awards makes it all the more real. Thank you, those who voted. And thank you, all those who shared the link. Those who didn’t, would you do it now please? Voting closes today!
International Dance Day
It’s International Dance Day! The best day, perhaps, to pay tribute to my guru, Guru Mythili Raghavan. Nobody can quite understand why she means so much to us. Why is it that we spend odd hours at her place? Why do so many of the seniors’ parents comment that we listen more to her than […]
Fun 4 Kids
It’s workshop season! The Cultural Centre, Pune, is a new space in Mundhwa for different activities and programmes. “Fun 4 Kids” is a venture into a range of activities for children. I will be facilitating the ‘Literature’ activities with reading and writing workshops once a month. The poster says it all!
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
“How about watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?” a friend’s mother suggested when I was about eleven. I giggled. “What a funny name! What is that?” “You mean you haven’t read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?” Eyes wide open in amazement. And that is how I came to watch the old BBC movie […]
The Red Dress
As a child, I did not like anything about anything awkward. I did not like dirt (even though I asked my father where the Famous Five went to the loo and how they had baths when they went camping). I did not find ‘dirty’ humour funny, even humour aimed at children. I liked politeness and […]
Hello? Is Anybody There?
If you go to the moon, you would go up. But when you reach the moon, you land. You go down. And if you are on the moon and you look up, you will see the earth. That means that somewhere between here and the moon, up becomes down and down becomes up. I started […]
Shadow Web
Everybody in the internet age does it at least once in a while. Type in ‘Varsha Seshan’, just to see what pops up. Don’t tell me you haven’t searched for yourself on Google. Jessica Allendon did just that. And the consequences were totally out of control. Shadow Web is not about time-travel. Time-travel is easy. […]
Avameru
I began to read the book and licked my lips, wondering what I could say about it. A book by a dear friend can be a dangerous thing because you must have an opinion about it. With Avameru, the opinion was easy. I enjoyed it. Yes, in the beginning, I had thoughts in my head […]
Women of Pride
Women of Pride unravelled a lot of questions before proceeding to respond to them, at least in part . There was so much about the devadasis that I did not know. Often in books I read, the history of these temple dancers was cheerfully summed up in a couple of sentences. The devadasis were nityasumangali […]
International Children’s Book Day
Yes, today is International Children’s Book Day, a time for me to look back at all the wonderful children’s books I’ve read this year!
Toro! Toro!
Is it true that the most moving books must be placed during wartime? How strange that the moments of greatest human kindness come during the cruelest of times! Toro! Toro! is not like the other Morpurgos that I have read, insomuch that it is not about the second world war at all. Yet, it is about […]
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips
The best stories are the simplest ones of all. And who better than Michael Morpurgo to write simple stories so simply that they charm you? Boowie receives a letter from his grandmother, not very long after the death of his grandfather. It is undoubtedly the most remarkable letter of his life. As part of the […]